A Seattle-based look at the week in Trump news

Updated 5:35 pm, Friday, February 24, 2017

A quick look at how Seattle responded to the Trump administration for the week of Feb. 19 - 24:

President Trump criticized the news media for using anonymous sources in his 2017 CPAC speech. But he isn't always so critical - in his own way, Trump loves to cite anonymous sources.

Media: Brandpoint

On Monday, our friends across the pond blasted President Trump as Britain's House of Commons debated whether or not he should be welcomed on an upcoming state visit. A total of 1.86 million British residents signed a petition to keep Trump out of their country for the duration of his presidency. British Labor Party politician Paul Flynn said Trump was acting "like a petulant child."

On Tuesday, Mayor Ed Murray pledged to sue the Trump administration during his 2017 State of the City speech at the Idris mosque if the city is unable to get timely answers about the president's executive orders. Murray said the city will give the White House and Department of Homeland Security a deadline of 20 business days to respond.

On Wednesday, the Trump administration withdrew an Obama policy guidance that transgender students be permitted to use the school bathroom of their choice. Under Obama, transgender individuals were allowed to use the bathroom of their gender identity at school districts and colleges receiving federal money. The issue is now up for states to decide, with White House spokesperson Sean Spicer saying President Trump is "a firm believer in states' rights." Gov. Jay Inslee said he opposed the Trump administration's reversal of federal protection for transgender students and that "Washington state will continue to be a place where all children can feel safe from discrimination, harassment, or assault based on their gender identity."

Also on Wednesday, a new NBC News-Survey Monkey poll of 11,512 Americans conducted Feb. 13-19 showed that 43 percent of Americans polled approve of Trump's presidential performance, while 54 percent disapprove. A Gallup poll taken in January showed that "President Donald Trump is the first elected president in Gallup's polling history to receive an initial job approval rating below the majority level."

On Thursday, U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., announced she was bringing Aneelah Afzali with her as a guest to President Trump's Tuesday address to a joint session of Congress. Afzali is a Muslim activist and executive director of the American Muslim Empowerment Network (AMEN), an initiative of the Redmond-based Muslim Association of Puget Sound (MAPS). Jayapal, who is the first Indian-American woman to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives, said Afzali represents "everything good about our country."

On Friday, President Trump banned major news outlets such as The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, CNN and Politico from joining an informal, on-the-record White House press briefing Friday. His announcement came just hours after he spoke at the Conservative Political Action Conference, in which he continued to attack the media by calling outlets "fake news." Several news organizations were still allowed in, including the conservative website Breitbart News. The site's former executive chairman, Steve Bannon, is chief strategist to President Trump.

Columnist Joel Connelly has written about politics for the P-I since 1973.